A GOLDEN COMPASS

Forget every idea of right and wrong
     Any classroom ever taught you

                       Because
An empty heart, a tormented mind,
    Unkindness, jealousy and fear

    Are always the testimony
You have been completely fooled!

     Turn your back on those
Who would imprison your wondrous spirit
      With deceit and lies.

     Come, join the honest company
          Of the King's beggars-
Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns
     And those astonishing fair courtesans
       Who need Divine Love every night.

        Come join the courageous
             Who have no choice
     But to bet their entire world
                  That indeed,
              Indeed, God is Real.

   I will lead you into the Circle
Of the Beloved's cunning thieves,
         Those playful royal rogues-
Those ones you can trust for true guidance-
              Who can aid you
      In this Blessed Calamity of life.

                      Hafiz,
      Look at the Perfect One
        At the Circle's Center:

He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,
            Beyond all that is Rational,

             To show this dear world

               That Everything,
             Everything in Existence
                Does point to God.

                                         HAFIZ

IF YOU THINK

 If you think you are beaten, you are.
 If you think you dare not, you don't!
If you want to win, but think you can't,
       It's almost a cinch you won't

 If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
      For out in the world we find
 Success begins with a fellow's will;
       It's all in the state of the mind.

   Life's battles don't always go
 To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
   Is the man who thinks he can.

                                         WALKER D. WINTLE

TEMPORARY SETBACK- NOT PERMANENT DEFEAT

Someone once challenged Thomas Alva Edison by reminding him
that he failed twenty-five thousand times while experimenting with the
storage battery. "No, I didn't fail," the brilliant inventor replied. "I
 discovered 24,999 ways that the storage battery does not work." In his
lifetime Edison received 1,093 patents for inventing devices such as the
phonograph, motion pictures, the electric pen, waxed paper, and, of course,
the incandescent lamp.

                  Failure was no stranger to Edison. Yet he refused to accept it as a
permanent defeat. His long, remarkable career was inspired by the desire to
make things work. At the time of his death, Edison left some 2,900 notebooks
crammed with notes of his work ideas.

REF:THE SPEAKER'S SOURCEBOOK BY GLENN VAN EKEREN

DON'T QUIT

Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous composer-pianist, was scheduled
to perform at a great concert hall in America. It was an evening to
remember-black tuxedos and long evening dresses, a high-society
extravaganza. Present in the audience that evening were a mother with
her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting, he squirmed constantly
in his seat. His mother hoped her boy would be encouraged to practice
the piano if he could just hear the immortal Paderewski at the keyboard.
So-against his wishes- he had come.
                As she turned to talk with her friends, her son could stay
seated no longer. He slipped away from her side, strangely drawn to the
 ebony concert grand Steinway and its leather tufted stool on the huge stage
flooded with blinding lights. Without much notice from the sophisticated
audience, the boy sat down at the stool, staring wide-eyed at the black-and-white
 keys. He placed his small, trembling fingers in the right location and began to play
"Chopstick." The roar of the crowd was hushed as hundreds of frowning faces
turned in his direction. Irritated and embarrassed, they began to shout:
                 "Get that boy away from there!"
                  "Who'd bring a kid that young in here?"
                    "Where's his mother?"
                    "Somebody stop him!"

           Backstage, the master overheard the sounds out front and quickly put
together in his mind what was happening. Hurriedly, he grabbed his coat and
rushed toward the stage. Without one word of announcement, he stooped over
behind the boy, reached around both sides, and began to improvise a counter-melody
to harmonize with and enhance "Chopsticks." As the two of them played together,
Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear, "Keep going. Don't quit, son. Keep on
playing. Don't stop. Don't quit."

                   And so it is with us. We hammer away on our project, which seems about
as significant as "Chopsticks." in a concert hall. And about the time we are ready to give
 it up, along comes the master, who leans over and whispers, "Now keep going. Don't quit.
Keep on. Don't stop. Don't quit" as He improvises on our behalf, providing just the right
touch at just the right moment.

                                                                CHARLES SWINDOLL

THE DRUNK AND THE CONSTABLE

A man whose job it was to keep the peace
Beat up a drunk, who fought for his release
And cried: "It's you who's tippled too much wine;
Your rowdiness is ten times worse than mine-
Who's causing this disturbance, you or me?
But yours is drunkenness that men can't see;
Leave me alone! Let justice do its worst-
Enforce the law and beat yourself up first!"'

                                                   ATTAR

THE PUPIL WHO ASKED FOR ADVICE

There was a pupil once who begged his sheikh:
"Give me some good advice, for pity's sake!"
The sheikh cried: "Leave me- go on, get away,
And if you itch for what I've got to say,
First wash your face- musk can't drive out a stink;
Words are no good to someone sick with drink!"

                                                                   ATTAR

THE KING WHO STOPPED AT THE PRISON GATES

A king returned once to his capital.
His subjects had prepared a festival,
And each to show his homage to the crown
Had help to decorate the glittering town.
The prisoners has no wealth but iron gyves,
Chains, severed heads, racked limbs and ruined lives-
With such horrific ornaments they made
A sight to greet their monarch's cavalcade.
The king rode through the town and saw the way
His subjects solemnized the happy day,
But nothing stopped the progress of his train
Till he approached the prison and drew rein.
There he dismounted and had each man told
That he was free and would be paid in gold.
A courtier asked the king: "what does this mean?
To think of all the pageantry you've seen-
Brocade ans satin shinning everywhere,
Musk and sweet ambergris to scent the air,
Jewels scattered by the handful on the ground-
And not so much as once did you look round;
Yet here you stop-before the prison gate!
Are severed heads a way to celebrate?
What is there here to give you such delight?
Torn limbs and carcasses? A grisly sight!
And why did you dismount? Should you sit down
With all the thieves and murderers in town?"
The king replied: "The others make a noise
Like rowdy children playing with new toys;
Each takes part in some festivity,
Careful to please himself as much as me-
They do their duty and are quite content,
But here in prison more than duty's meant.
My words is a law here, and they've plainly shown
This spectacle was made for me alone.
I see obedience here; need I explain
Why it is here I'm happy to draw rein?
The others celebrate in pompous pride,
Conceited, giddy and self -satisfied,
But these poor captives sacrifice their will
And bow to my commands through good and ill-
They have no business but to spend each breath
In expectation of the noose and death,
Yet they submit- and to my grateful eyes
Their prison is a flower-strewn paradise."
Wisdom accepts authority and waits;
The king paused only at the prison gates.

                                                            ATTAR

A KING WHO PLACED MIRRORS IN HIS PALACE

There lived a king; his comeliness was such
The world could not acclaim his charm too much.
The world's wealth seemed a portion of his grace;
It was a miracle to view his face.
If he had rivals,then I know of none;
The earth resounded with this paragon.
When riding through his streets he did not fail
To hide his features with a scarlet veil.
Whoever scanned the veil would lose his head;
Whoever spoke his name was left for dead,
The tongue ripped from his mouth; whoever thrilled
With passion for this king was quickly killed.
A thousand for his love expired each day,
And those who saw his face, in blank dismay
Would rave and grieve and mourn their lives away-
To die for love of that bewitching sight
Was worth a hundred lives without his light.
None could survive his absence patiently,
None could endure this king's proximity-
How strange it was that man could neither brook
The presence nor the absence of his look!
Since few could bear his sight, they were content
To hear the king in sober argument,
But while they listened they endure such pain
As made them long to see their king again.
The king commanded mirrors to be placed
About the palace walls, and when he faced
Their polished surfaces his image shone
With mitigated splendour to the throne.

If you would glimpse the beauty we revere
Look in your heart-its image will appear.
Make of your heart a looking-glass and see
Reflected there the Friend's nobility;
Your sovereign's glory will illuminate
The palace where he reigns in proper state.
Search for this king within your heart; His soul
Reveals itself in atoms of the Whole.
The multitude of forms that masquerade
Throughout the world spring from the Simorgh's shade.
If you catch sight of His magnificence
It is His shadow that beguiles your glance;
The Simorgh's shadow and Himself are one;
Seek them together, twinned in unison.
But you are lost in vague uncertainty....
Pass beyond shadows to Reality.
How can you reach the Simorgh's splendid court?
First find its gateway, and the sun, long-sought,
Erupts through clouds; when victory is won,
Your sight knows nothing but the blinding sun.

                                                          ATTAR

BIRDSONG FROM INSIDE THE EGG

Sometimes a lover of God may faint
in the presence. Then the beloved bends
and whispers in his ear, "Beggar spread out
your robe. I'll fill it with gold.

I've come to protect your consciousness.
Where was it gone? Come back into awareness!"

This fainting is because
lovers want so much.

A chicken invites a camel into her hen house,
and the whole structure is demolished.

A rabbit nestles down
with its eyes closed
in the arms of a lion.

There is an excess
in spiritual searching
that is profound ignorance.

Let that ignorance be our teacher!
The Friend breathes into one
who has no breath.

A deep silence revives the listening
and the speaking of those two
who meet on the riverbank.

Like the ground turning green in a spring wind.
Like birdsong beginning inside the egg.

Like this universe coming into existence,
the lover wakes, and whirls
in a dancing joy,

then kneels down
in praise.

                                               RUMI

REF:ESSENTIAL RUMI

DYING, LAUGHING

A lover was telling his beloved
how much he loved her, how faithful
he had been, how self-sacrificing, getting up
at dawn every morning, fasting, giving up
wealth and strength and fame,
all for her.

There was a fire in him.
He didn't know where it came from,
but it made him weep and melt like a candle.

"You've done well," she said, "but listen to me.
All this is the decor of love, the branches
and leaves and blossoms. You must live
at the root to be a true lover."
                                            "Where is that!
Tell me!"
                "You've done the outward acts,
but you haven't died. You must die."

When he heard that, he lay back on the ground
laughing, and died. He opened like a rose
that drops to the ground and died laughing.

That laughter was his freedom,
and his gift to the eternal.

As moonlight shines back at the sun,
he heard the call to come home, and went.

When light returns to its source,
it takes nothing
of what it has illuminated.

It may have shone on a garbage dump, or a garden,
or in the center of a human eye. No matter.

It goes, and when it does,
the open plain becomes passionately desolate,
wanting it  back.

                                                       RUMI

REF: THE ESSENTIAL RUMI

A STORY ABOUT ALEXANDER THE GREAT

When Alexander, that unconquered lord,
Who subjugated empires with his sword,
Required a lengthy message to be sent
He dressed up as the messenger and went.
"The king gives such an order," he should say,
And none of those who hurried to obey
Once guessed this messenger's identity-
They had no knowledge of such majesty,
And even if he said: "I am your lord",
The claim was thought preposterous and ignored.
Deluded natures cannot recognize
The royal way that stands before their eyes.

                                                      ATTAR

THE TWO DOCTORS

A Dr. Cheer and a Dr. Gloom
Were summoned to the same sickroom.
"He'll die," said Gloom, "I greatly fear."
"He'll get well," said Dr. Cheer.
The man agreed to follow Gloom,
And soon was lying in his tomb.
"Just as I thought," said Gloom. Said Cheer,
"If he'd hired me, he'd still be here."
They both did well by the patients doom,
Dr. Cheer and Dr. Gloom.

REF: SELECTED FABLES

THE LION IN LOVE

Ages ago when beasts could speak
Some hoped to join the human clique
Notably lions. And with reason-
They equalled men, in that far season
In brain and brawn, and what was more
Could really roar.

Thus when a lion of high degree
Was passing through a meadowy
Place and saw a shepherdess
Whom he was avid to posses,
He went at once to ask her father.
That good man balked: for he would rather
Have had his pretty daughter marry
Someone less scary.

It seemed hard lines to let her go,
But then he thought if he said 'no'
He might wake up to find some morning
That she'd eloped without a warning.
He knew his child was ever keen
For people with a kingly mien,
And had her cap set, that was plain,
Fpr a long mane.

Afraid to bring things to a head
By ousting him, the father said:
"My daughter is delicately fashioned.
As soon as you become impassioned
You'd likely wound her with your claws.
So kindly have on all four paws
The talons trimmed. One other issue:
If this young girl is going to kiss you
With any ardor, she must be
Freed of all anxiety.
So for your own enjoyment, while
You're at it, let them file
Your teeth." The lion, love-demented
Consented.

Behold him now without his teeth,
Without his claws, an empty sheath!
With all his native weapons gone
The helpless lion was set upon
By hounds that easily outmatched him.
They dispatched him.

Ah love, whoever bows to you
Should bid his sanity adieu!

REF: SELECTED FABBLES

THE DEVOUT SLAVE

A negro had a slave devout and wise
Who at an early hour would wake and rise,
Then pray until the sun came peeping through.
His master said: "wake me up early too,
And we can pray together till the dawn."
The slave said: "just before a baby's born,
Who tells the mother 'Now your time draws near?'
She knows it does- her pain has made it clear;
If you have felt this pain you are awake-
No other man can feel it for your sake.
If someone has to rouse you every day,
Then someone else instead of you should pray."
The man without this pain is not a man;
May grief destroy the bragging charlatan!
But one who is entangled in its spell
Forget all thoughts of heaven or of hell.

                                                   ATTAR

GREETING GOD

                 I hear
The nightingale greeting
                  God.

                 I hear
The rain speaking to the roof
             Of my heart.

Like a winter blanket of snow gently
            Tucking in the earth

I let a great yearning within my ken
               Lay down next
                   To Him

                     I hear
    A sorrowful lover being true
No matter what, even if the Beloved seems
                    Cruel,

                   Tonight
There is a jeweled falcon singing in a
     Blessed pain using the tongue
                        Of
                     HAFIZ

I COME BEFORE DAWN

Muhammad says,
                           "I come before dawn
to chain you and drag you off."
It's amazing, and funny, that you have to be pulled away
from being tortured, pulled out
into this Springs garden,
                                     but that is the way it is.
Almost everyone must be bound and dragged here.
Only a few come on their own.

Children have to be made to go to school at first.
Then some of them begin to like it.
                                               They run to school.
They expand with the learning.
                                               Later they receive money
because of something they're learned at school,
and they get really excited. They stay up all night,
as watchful and alive as thieves!

Remember the reward you get for being obedient!

There are two types on the path. Those who come
against their will, the blindly religious people, and those
who obey out of love. The former have ulterior motives.
They want the midwife near, because she give them milk.
The others love the beauty of the nurse.

The former memorise the proof texts of conformity,
and repeat them. The latter disappear
into whatever draws them to God.

Both are drawn from the source.
Any moving from the mover,
Any love from the beloved.

                                         RUMI

WOW! TO THE CREATOR

-In crocodilians, chelonians and some lizard species, the sex of
the young depends on the temperature at which the eggs are
incubated. Higher temperatures tend to produce more males, and
lower temperatures more females.


-A giant tortoise can support a one-tonne weight- about a weight
of an average car.


-Nile crocodiles allow small birds, such as spur-wing plovers, to
walk into their open mouths to pick food from between their teeth.


-Crocodiles often swallow stones to help them grind up their food.
The stone also probably act as ballast, enabling the reptile to float
without tipping over.

-After eating a huge meal, such as a leopard. a python may not need
to eat again for up to 12 months. One rock python was recorded
as going for 2 years and 9 months between meals.

WOW! TO THE CREATOR

-Some moth species drink the tears of
hoofed animals such as cattle, deer, horses,
tapirs, pigs and elephants.


-The largest locust swarms can contain up to
50 billion insects. and over1,000 sq km of land.
Such swarms can devour enough crops in a single
day to feed around half a million people for a whole
year.


-At night, scorpions are said to be able to use the
stars to navigate and orient themselves.


-The Australian water-holding frogs survives long
desert droughts by shedding the outer layers of its
skin to form a cocoon that it fills with water.


-When it find water, a thirsty desert tortoise may
drink more than 40% of its own body weight in
water in just over an hour.

THE VIGIL

Don't go to sleep one night.
What you most want will come to you then.
Warmed by a sun inside, you'll see wonders.
Tonight, don't put your head down.
Be tough, and strength will come.
That which adoration adores
appears at night. Those asleep
may miss it. One night Moses stayed awake
and asked, and saw a light in a tree.

Then he walked at night for ten years,
until finally he saw the whole tree
illuminated. Muhammad rode his horse
through the night sky. The day is for work.
The night for love. Don't let someone
bewitch you. Some people sleep at night.

But not lovers. They sit in the dark
and talk to God, who told David,
"Those who sleep all night every night
and claim to be connected to us, they lie."

Lovers can't sleep when they feel the privacy
of the beloved all around them. Someone
who's thirsty may sleep for a little while,
but he or she will dream of water, a full jar
beside a creek, or the spiritual water you get
from another person. All night, listen
to the conversation. Stay up.
This moment is all there is.

Death will take it away soon enough.
You'll be gone, and this earth will be left
without a sweetheart, nothing but weeds
growing inside thorns.

I'm through. Read the rest of this poem
in the dark tonight.
                        Do I have a head? And feet?

Shams, so loved by Tabrizians, I close my lips.
I wait for you to come and open them.

                                                 RUMI

WOW! TO THE CREATOR

-The smallest shark is the dwarf lantern shark.
  at just 20 cm long. It is so small that it could
  lie curled up in your hand.

-Walking fish: The tripod fish is one of the deepest-
  dwelling of all fish, found more than 6000 m below
  the surface. It 'walks' along the soft mud of the
  seabed on the long spines of its two lower side fins
  (pelvics) and lower tail. It probably eats small shrimp
  and similar shellfish.

-Insect Senses: Insect eyes are of two different types.
 Compound eyes, which are made up of many tiny lenses,
  are good at detecting movement. Simple eyes only register
  light and dark. An insect's antennae, or 'feelers', function as
 organs of touch, smell, and taste.


-pseudo scorpions often attach themselves to the legs of insects,
 such as house-flies, crane flies and beetles, to hitch rides.
 They can also walk backwards.


-

JESUS ON THE LEAN DONKEY

Jesus on the lean donkey,
this is an emblem of how the rational intellect
should control the animal -soul.
                                    Let your spirit
be strong like Jesus.
                         If that part becomes weak,
than the worn-out donkey grow to a dragon.

Be grateful when what seems unkind
comes from a wise person.
                                      Once, a holy man,
riding his donkey, saw a snake crawling into
a sleeping man's mouth! He hurried, but he couldn't
prevent it. He hit the man several blows with his club.

The man woke terrified and ran beneath an apple tree
with many rotten apples on the ground.
                                                          "Eat!
You miserable wretch! Eat."
                                            "Why are you doing this to me?"
"Eat more, you fool."
                                "I've never seen you before!
Who are you? Do you have some inner quarrel with my soul?"

The wise man kept forcing him to eat, and then he ran him.
For hours he whipped the poor man and made him run.
Finally, at nightfall, full of rotten apples,
fatigued, bleeding, he fell
                                     and vomited everything,
the good and the bad, the apples and the snake.

When he saw the ugly snake
come out himself, he fell on his knees
before his assailant.
                             "Are you Gabriel? Are you God?

I bless the moment you first noticed me. I was dead
and didn't know it. You've given me a new life.
Everything I've said to you was stupid!
I didn't know."
                         "If I had explained what I was doing,
you might have panicked and died of fear.
Muhammad said,
                           'If I describe the enemy that lives
inside men, even the most courageous would be paralyzed. No one
would go out, or do any work. No one would pray and fast,
and all power to change would fade
from human beings,'
                                so I kept quite
while I was beating you, that like David
I might shape iron, so that, impossibly,
I might put feathers back into a bird's wing.

God's silence is necessary, because of humankind's
faintheartedness. If had told you about the snake,
you wouldn't have been able to eat, and if
you hadn't eaten, you wouldn't have vomited.

I saw your condition and drove my donkey hard
into the middle of it, saying always under my breath,
'Lord, make it easy on him.' I wasn't permitted
to tell you, and I wasn't permitted to stop
beating you!"
                   The healed man, still kneeling,
"I have no way to thank you for the quickness
of your wisdom and the strength
of your guidance.
                          God will thank you."

                                           RUMI

WOW! TO THE CREATOR

-Some hot springs have superheated water.
 The water is under such great pressure as
 it spurts from cracks in the rock, that is hotter
 than boiling. Yet some tiny life-forms called
 bacteria can live in it.


-On a hot, sunny day, the water in a rock pool
 can reach more than 50 degree centigrade. Yet
 in winter it can be almost freezing. Rock pool
 animals must be very tough to withstand such
 extremes.


-The biggest pearl was found in a giant clam and
 was 12 cm across. One oyster had eight small
 pearls inside,


-The giant squid has the largest eyes of any animal.
 They are up to 40 cm across- about the size of a
 soccer ball.

REF:THE MILES KELLY BOOK OF LIFE


-

A THANKFUL HEART IS THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

'Why do people go through life looking for happiness?
Dogs and cats look for food and comfort, but they
certainly don't go to all the trouble that people do in
their continual search for happiness. I suppose the reason
 is that we are the only ones who can align ourselves
with the hado of happiness.
      Many years ago, I had a discussion with Dr. Ravi Batra,
a well-known international economist, and he said something
that has stuck with me:

          "Why do you think people continually search
            for happiness? The reason is because we
            people have a link to unlimited existence. But
            many of us make a serious mistake. We set up
            conditions for happiness based on riches and
            fame, momentary pleasures, and things that are
            limited and always changing.
               There are those who are rich beyond most
                of our imaginations, and yet they continue
                to want more as they strive in vain to find
                happiness. The reason it's in vain is because
                they are looking to find unlimited happiness
                in limited money and riches.
                    Unless we can become one with the
                 unlimited existence, we will never find true
                 happiness. This requires that we raise our
                 consciousness."

      All that can be seen with a human eye is of this limited
world.Sooner or later, the material trappings will end, and
as long as that is how we define happiness, our hearts will
always feel hollow.
         Of coursee I understand that casting aside all desire
is not possible or even advisable. In fact, desire is not
what's preventing us from finding happiness. An appropriate
amount of desire is needed to make people strive for something
better, and it's what made it possible for human society to
rise to its current level. The problem arises when we become
slaves of our desires.----
      When you align your soul with the hado of appreciation
and love, a small drop of happiness will seep into your heart
and spread throughout your body. This will link you to the
vibration of happiness, and happiness will become a part of
your daily life. And this is the secret for finding happiness
right now wherever you are.

REF:THE SECRET OF WATER

THERE IS VALUE IN UNHAPPINESS

----Life  is not all happiness. As long as there is life,
there will be sadness. All our high hopes can be easily
deflated, but another way to look at this is to realize
that unhappiness is the path on the way to happiness.
     We exposed water to the words "Happiness" and
"Unhappiness". As expected, the the water exposed to
"happiness" formed beautiful round crystals that would
make a precious ring. But what about crystals formed
from water exposed to "unhappiness"? We expected to
find deformed and broken crystals, but the crystals were
rather beautiful hexagonal crystals that looked like they
had been cut in half. It looked as if the water was trying
its best to form crystals. It would seem, then, that
unhappiness is not really the opposite of happiness.
Unhappiness, in fact, is the process required for the
creation of happiness.
            Happiness and unhappiness are like two ends
of the same rope, and sometimes you hold one end of
the rope and everything goes your way, and other times
you have the other end of the rope and nothing goes
your way.
          Such is life. We all want to be happy every day
and never have to experience sadness. How unnatural
that would be! Like the waves that rise and fall, if water
never falls, then it could never rise or flow ahead.----
-----You can never own only one side of a coin. If you
want to find happiness, then you have to be ready to accept
what comes with it. Such is fate of all those who live in this
world.
        But we can still have hope and look forward to the future.
In fact, do you think you would be able to have hope if
everything went exactly as you wanted it to? Your ability
to be happy no matter what and no matter when depends
entirely on what's going on in your heart.

REF: THE SECRET LIFE OF WATER
BY MASARU EMOTO

WOW! TO THE CREATOR

-One species of cockroach can go for about 3 months
without eating, surviving off its body fat.It can even live
for 40 days with neither food nor water.


-The bombardier beetle can twist the end of its abdomen
to squirt a boiling, irritating liquid in almost any direction.
The liquid evaporates immediately it is sprayed. Forming
a gas that briefly blind the enemy and enables the bombardier
beetle to run away.


-Most cicadas are the loudest of all insects. The song of some
species can be heard more than 400 miles away.The sound of
thousand's of cicadas in a single tree can be louder than a
pneumatic drill.


-Many flowers have patterns of lines on them that reflect
ultraviolet light. Although the patterns are not visible to the
human eye, these 'honey guides' direct bees and other insect
to the nector.


-Worker honeybees communicate the location of food to the
rest of the hive by 'dancing'. The dances may be circular or
in a figure of eight (8), accompanied by waggles of the abdomen
and high-pitched buzzing.


-Ant communicate with the help of their feelers (antennae).
which are sensitive to touch and scent. They also leave scent
trails behind them to let the other ants know exactly where to
find the food source.Each ant colony has a unique smell that
helps the members to identify each other. This also helps the
ants to detect an intruder in the nest.

FROM SAND AND FOAM BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

-You cannot consume beyond your appetite. The other
 half of the loaf belongs to the other person, and there
should remain a little bread for the chance guest.


-Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than
you do, but it is in giving me that which you need more than
I do.


-You are indeed charitable when you give, and while giving,
turn your face away so that you may not see the shyness of
the receiver.


-You may judge others only according to your knowledge
of yourself. Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who
 is unguilty?


-You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him,
and how small is your knowledge.


-How mean am I when life gives me gold and I give you silver,
and yet I dream myself generous.


REF: KAHLIL GIBRAN AN ILLUSTRATED ANTHOLOGY
BY AYMAN A EL- DESOUKY.

WOW TO THE CREATOR

-Arthropods have paired limbs, which can be specialized
as legs; pincers, paddles or almost any other form.

- On a warm day, a large oak tree takes up about 1140 l
of water from the soil. As much as 98% of this water is lost
through the tree's leaves by evaporation.


-The Arctic poppy is the flower that blooms the nearest to
North pole.


- The world grows enough wheat in a year to fill a line of
trucks stretching a quarter of the way to the Moon.


-  A drug made from the Madagascar periwinkle, a perennial
plant, helps children to fight the cancer leukemia.


- Male seahorses have the babies. They don't exactly give birth,
but they store the eggs in a pouch on their belly. When the eggs
are ready to hatch, a stream of miniature seahorses billows out
from the Male's pouch.


-In some tropical swamps the water can be more than 40 degree
Centigrade far too hot for us to bathe in. Decaying plants make
the water acidic- it would rot our clothes in a couple of days.
Yet fish and other creatures live here.

REF: THE MILES KELLY BOOK OF LIFE

-

WOW! TO THE CREATOR

-Early fish were the first animals to have brains in their heads.
Other creatures had nerve connections and sensory organs
spread around their body. Or concentrated in more than one
 place.

-Flying reptiles had hollow bones; so that their bodies were
as light as possible. This means that their bones become
fossilized only rarely- usually when they fell into a lake or sea.

-Together, the world's plants produce a combined total of about
150 billion tonnes of sugar each year by photosynthesis.

-Venus fly-trap (plant) sometimes catch small frogs, and the rajah
pitcher (plant) is said to eat mice.

-The deadly nightshade plant is poisonous to humans, but birds and
rabbits can eat it without harm.

-Some lotus seeds have sprouted after being in a dormant (resting)
state for 400 years.


REF: THE MILES KELLY BOOK OF LIFE

THE BASKET OF FRESH BREAD

The Prophet Muhammad said,
                                     "There is no better companion
on this way what you do. Your actions will be
your best friend, or if you're cruel and selfish,
your actions will be a poisonous snake
that lives in your grave."

                                     But tell me,
can you do the good work without a teacher?
Can you even know what it is without the presence
of a Master? Notice how the lowest livelihood
requires some instruction.

                                       First comes knowledge,
then the doing of the job.And much later,
perhaps after you're dead, something grows
from what you're done.

                                  Look for help and guidance
in whatever craft you're learning. Look for a generous
teacher, one who has absorbed the tradition he's in.

Look for pearl in oyster shells.
Learn technical skill from a craftsman.

Whenever you meet genuine spiritual teachers,
be gentle and polite and fair with them.
Ask them questions, and be eager
for answers. Never condescend.

If a master tanner wears an old, threadbare smock,
that doesn't diminish his mastery.

If  a fine blacksmith works at the bellows
in a patched apron, it doesn't affect
how he bends the iron.

                               Strip away your pride,
and put on humble clothes.
                                If you want to learn theory,
talk with theoreticians. That way is oral.

When you learn a craft, practice it.
That learning comes through the hands.

If you want dervishhood, spiritual poverty,
and emptiness, you must be friends with a sheikh.

Talking about it, reading books, and doing practices
don't help. Soul receives from soul that knowing.

The mystery of spiritual emptiness
may be living in a pilgrim's heart, and yet
the knowing of it may not yet be his.

Wait for the illuminating openness,
as though your chest were filling with light,
as when God said,
                           'did we not expand you?'
                                                      (Qur'an 94:1)

Don't look for it outside yourself.
You are the source of milk. Don't milk others!

There is a milk fountain inside you.
Don't walk around with a empty bucket.

You have a channel into the ocean, and yet
you ask for water from a little pool.

Beg for that love expansion. Meditate only
on THAT. The Qur'an says,
                                           'And He is with you'
                                                                    (57:4)

There is a basket of fresh bread on your head,
and yet you go door to door asking for crusts.
Knock on your inner door. No other.
Sloshing knee-deep in fresh riverwater, yet
you keep wanting a drink from other people's waterbags.

Water is everywhere around you, but you see only
barriers that keep you from water.
The horse is beneath the rider's thighs, and still
he asks, "Where's my horse?"

                                Right there under you!"Yes, this is a horse, but where's the horse?"
                                   Can't you see!
"Yes, I can see, but whoever saw such a horse?"

Mad with thirst, he can't drink from the stream
running so close by his face. He's like a pearl
on the deep bottom, wondering, inside his shell,
where's the ocean?
                               His mental questionings
form the barrier. His physical eyesight
bandages his knowing. Self-consciousness
plugs his ears.
                      Stay bewildered in God,
and only that.
                     Those of you who are scattered,
simplify your worrying lives. There is one
righteousness: Water the fruit trees,
and don't water the throne. Be generous
to what nurtures the spirit and God's luminous
reason-light. Don't honor what causes
dysentery and knotted-up tumors.

Don't feed both sides of yourself equally.
The spirit and the body carry different loads
and require different attentions.
                                          Too often
we put saddlebags on Jesus and let the donkey
run loose in the pasture.
                                Don't make the body do
what the spirit does best, and don't put a big load
on the spirit that the body could carry easily.

                                                                  RUMI

REF:THE ESSENTIAL RUMI
TRANSLATIONS BY COLEMAN BARKS WITH
JOHN MOYNE.

CENTRALITY OF CREATION (EPISTLES OF THE BRETHREN OF PURITY)

"-----Plants, you must know, live upside down. Their heads point towards the center of the earth,
their bottoms to the circling spheres. Man is just the opposites. His head is in the heavens, and his
feet point to the earth's center, wherever he stands on the earth's surface- north, south,east, or west-
and whichever way he faces. Animals are in between, neither upside-down like plants nor right-side-up
like man.Rather, their heads face one way, horizontally, and their tails the other, as they turn this way
and that and go about theur business.
      This order or scale of plants, animals, and humans, as we've described it, is divinely ordained, an
expression of God's wisdom and sovereign providence, a sign and a testimony for all with eyes to see,
who ponder the mysteries of creation. All who probe the true natures of things and scan the horizon to
learn from the portents they find there will see that the power of the Universal Soul shed their influence
on the world from the highest circling sphere to the deep core of the earth.Some flow straight down from
the outermost sphere to the earth's center, some return from the center, rising towards the encircling sphere,
and some are broadcast in all directions across the heavens. Every ray is filled with God's hosts, charged with preserving the world and managing its creatures, governing the whole, and other tasks whose inmost
working are known but to God, exalted be He.------"

REF: EPISTLES OF THE BRETHERN OF PURITY